Not Quite a Butterfly
by JustWastingThyme
Summary: AU Non- Mass Uchiha but rumblings of dissent are present. Sakura unintentionally learns about a planned Uchiha military coup while her teammates are off on a special training mission. She has to find Tsunade and tell her what she has learned. Unfortunately she has to escape Oto first and that ends up being harder than she thought...
Years ago while proctoring the chunin exams with Shikamaru, we spent three whole three hours during the semi-finals debating the merits of the butterfly effect.

In a weird way it was fitting. My boys had been called once more to go off and leave me for more extensive training outside of Konoha, and I was feeling once again the sting of being left behind. Though this time it didn't hurt as much... Okay that's a complete lie; I was bitter and depressed.

In my obnoxious wounded prideful state, I refused to see how small causations could have gigantic impact. I was convinced that this debate was Shikamaru's way of cheering me up. He was trying to show me how dainty little butterfly wings could cause a typhoon. I wasn't missing his metaphor and I was purposely taking offense to it.

I called the butterfly effect BS and fatalistic chaos theory mumbo jumbo. Shikamaru, with his long suffering sigh, told me, not to discount sensitive interdependence especially as it relates to the state of instability within all. Everything is connected and interwoven. All actions have potential to create an upset he reminded me as a small genin from Suna who was expected to lose the fight, claimed victory because the favored Konoha genin from the Akimichi clan underestimated the scrawny boy. The scrawny genin, who sort of looked like a blonde version of Gaara at that age, but without the psychotic eyes or tendencies, was able to use his size to his advantage as he dove in between an opening in the Akimichi defense to deliver an amazingly fast powerful blow to his opponent's left ear. I remember wincing when I heard the sound of contact. The medic in me knew the Akimichi's inner ear had been compromised. He was most likely suffering from a traumatic perilymph fistula. Throughout the remainder of the match his movements were shaky and clumsy.

When the Suna genin took victory after several tense minutes and blows later. Shikamaru lazily took a drag of his cigarette.

"The heart of the butterfly effect is that interrelatedness of seemingly inconsequential occurrences having the ability to change the course of history." Shikamaru took a moment to stop his lecture call the fight for the Suna genin and call for a medic for the knocked out Akimichi.

"Who are you to say that given the right circumstances, a butterfly flapping its wings could not be the catalyst to creating a hurricane across the ocean?"

He had a point. I am still not sure If I completely believe that the butterfly effect is legitimate theory worthy to be studied, but it has forced me to pay attention to small little things. I will never forget that nameless Suna genin who was able to take down a mighty Akimichi by a strategic blow delivered in the beginning of their match.

Why that memory came to me in a flash while I hid in a stinky back alley in Oto lying down with a passed out drunk samurai's arm around me... Well let's just say, if I hadn't caught a glimpse of sharingan eyes or if I hadn't been teammates with a certain Uchiha or if I hadn't been apprenticed to the Hokage or if I hadn't honed my gut instincts after hundreds of missions I would not have recognized the small moment that called for decisive action. The Uchiha was up to something and I needed to find out what.

Before being forced to snuggle up next to my samurai friend, I had caught a glimpse of his sharingan eyes that place some nameless Oto nin in a terrifying genjutsu. Normally that is not a problem. Uchiha do it all the time. It's one of the clans favorite offensive moves. It was suspicious because Konoha didn't send nin to Oto.

I was the notable exception.

Something didn't feel right. I followed him from a distance and saw him subtly catch the attention of another figure. Then they turned to enter the alley I was hiding in.

In desperation I decided it was best to hide in plain site. Hence why I was cuddling a stranger on the disgusting alley floor.

I was lucky I was still in disguise from my mission. My distinguishing features, namely my pink hair was dyed a burnt orange and I was dressed in a dirty low cut dress that had been stained by various drinks, dirt and blood. Not mine. I had lost my strappy stilettos earlier while I was making my quick getaway. Frankly, I looked like the perfect beaten-up drunken prostitute with her john passed out for the night. This was an illusion I was planning to keep. I could feel them flashed their specialized eyes, accept as a fact the insignificant prostitute was nothing more than she appeared, and they began to speak in confidence.

Shit!

I had been expecting something bad. But not this.

Their words were not making sense to me. Yes they spoke my native language, so I knew what they were saying, but it didn't make any sense. How could they be planning the annihilation and destruction of our home? This was some strange joke or genjutsu, it wasn't real. Realizing my heart was racing, and my breathing was changing I made an effort to control my body's natural physiological responses to my shock in overhearing what they were saying. I knew I hadn't been trapped in a genjutsu… or at least I was mostly sure….

No this was real. I had been teammates with both an Uchiha prodigy and Kakashi of the Sharingan. I knew reality from a genjutsu especially a genjutsu cast from a sharingan. What was happening in front of me was real and I needed to find out what was going on or my homeland was in serious trouble.

I needed to discover what was going on. I could not risk using my Chakra while an unknown Uchiha used his sharingan to ensure no nin overheard them. I could not tell if the older man he was speaking with was also an Uchiha, but it was best to assume so. I had no idea who these men were or what was their level of skill. But I would err on the side of caution. ANBU had several Uchiha.

Just then I became aware of that the drunk samurai I had tucked into was in the process of wetting himself. Gross. I knew I couldn't shift away from him...unless...

The only way I would learn any useful intel was to use my other skills. I was disguised and as long as I refrained from using chakra there should be no way they could determine my true identity. The good thing about having distinguishing characteristics is that most people don't notice anything else. Plus the way I was dressed, smelled and carried myself they probably wouldn't notice I had too much muscle definition to be a normal prostitute. Probably. It was a risk I would have to take.

By now the conversation between the men was drawing to a close, and if I did not get a good look at them or gather something else the information I had come across would be practically worthless. I had been working with Tsunade long enough to know that much. When threatening the member of a powerful clan with treason, your evidence had to be irrefutable or you had just forfeited your life.

With only an inkling of a plan and no time to let fear in, I began to move.

"Eww! You peed on me!" I shoved the drunk samurai away. He flopped over on to his back arm across his face still completely passed out. I schooled my voice to be higher pitched and whiny, close to how I spoke before puberty. Shakily I pulled myself to my feet with exaggerated movement. I needed to capture their attention.

It worked.

With my back to them, I could feel the atmosphere change as they moved their eyes upon me. Keeping in character I daintily tried to fix myself up. Pushing down my threadbare slip dress that at one point during the night had been a chocolate brown with red lace piping. Turing around slightly to give the men an eyeful of me adjusting my bra. I tried not to be shocked about how much of me was exposed, my left strap had been torn during a previous fight barely providing any covering. If I wasn't so filthy, I 'm pretty sure it would be obvious that my left breast was almost exposed. Great. Pushing modesty aside, I kept in character. I remembered to keep my chest slightly thrust forward, pelvis rocked back accentuating my butt and legs while keeping a coy tilt of my shoulders and chin, I turned to face them with mock surprise on my face. Prostitutes on the street were rarely ever caught off guard.

"Well hello gentlemen" I purred now dropping my voice a couple octaves lower. I started to slinking towards them. Left hand playing with my hair, right index finger drawing attention to my collar bone and decolletage. The alley was so cramped and we had been so close, it only took me a few steps before I was able to reach the first figure. Both men watched me warily as I wrapped my arms around one of them. "You look like you could show a girl a good time." I spoke in a breathless whisper. Leaning in I used my tongue to trace his ear while my hands explored his body.

Muscular build but old bones and tired joints. He was no longer in his prime, though it was obvious he must have been trained as a shinobi in his youth.

I couldn't believe I was once again using the same lines and tactics I had used earlier tonight. Guess it was a good thing I spent hours with Ino perfecting my "sex kitten" persona. Though I don't know how effective it would be with me smelling like garbage and pee.

The man I was draped on, turned out to also be an Uchiha, I think I recognized him as a clan elder. If he was who I thought, then I was correct, he had been a shinobi made it to chunin before moving to the police department… what was his name...

Regardless, he was so shocked by my brazen behavior it took him a moment to react. When he did, he made up for it by force. He backhanded me across my face and I went spinning around back into the filth forcing me to crash on top of the passed out samurai. I was now sprawled on top of him with my blood pouring down my mouth and nose dripping on to the samuria's arm that covered his face. I knew the older Uchiha had broken something. I started to whimper like a beaten dog as I shakily tried to pull myself onto my hands and knees. I kept my movements tentative mimicking a possible concussion. Discreetly I cocked my head to look over my shoulder to observe them. Both men exchanged a glance and vanished in a poof of smoke.

Before I could applaud myself on my successful undertaking, a flash of movement took me off guard.

My back was against alley wall, katana pressed to my throat starting to draw blood. Familiar red eyes with three spinning tomes met me. Shit. Another Uchiha. Wait not just any Uchiha, the older brother of my teammate Uchiha. Mr Genius ANBU captain Uchiha. Konoha's darling and most eligible bachelor was now getting ready to slit my throat. Where the hell had he come from?!

"Itachi Uchiha" I croaked out without thinking.

His eyes widen in surprise, I could tell he recognized me. My disguise had been compromised; I had no reason to hold back.

I let him try to draw me into a fairly high level genjutsu. Hoping it would distract him while I figured out what to do next. Honestly, he would have ensnared me if I had reacted a second slower. He was the best.

Gathering chakra to my feet I stomped with my right foot down causing the alley floor to cave down 30 feet below while using chakra gathered in my left foot to keep myself attached to the wall I had been pressed up against so I would not plummet in the hole below. I knew that move wouldn't phase him, but it would buy me some time to get away. Almost within the same instant I used a substitution jutsu and I teleported away to my safehouse.

* * *

My safehouse was really a small room with a dingy bathroom near the red light district. It was not quite the kind of establishment that rented rooms by the hour. But close enough. I had been staying there for the past month while I had been tracking down a series of sex traffickers for the Daimyo.

I teleported directly into my room thanks to an expensive beaconing scroll I had hidden inside. The scroll allowed me to use a specialized emergency teleportation jutsu. The scroll would act as a beacon guiding me to safety. It was similar in concept to stars guiding sailors as they navigated dark oceans. Without the beacon scroll it would have been impossible for me to teleport that far away that quickly in those conditions.

Once inside my room, I took a moment to check my traps to make sure I was still safe and my room had not been compromised. My defenses were a series of genjutsu overlays, physical wire traps, and Pakkun. Pakkum was one of Kakashi's nin dogs Kakashi insisted I keep with me when he went off on an extended training mission with Sasuke almost 2 years ago. Pakkum lazily opened his eyes as I appeared in the room.

"Isn't it lovely after it rains?"

I held myself in state of suspended animation. My adrenalin was still pounding through my system, blood continued flowing from my nose and mouth, and I was expecting Itachi to any moment come pounding through the door.

Pakkum yawned, stretched, scratched his ear circled three times and went back to lie down. I released the breath I had been holding. The room was still safe.

"Pakkum we need to get ready to leave now."

"..." He yawned and stretched again.

Ignoring his confused expression I tore to the bathroom removing my destroyed clothing. Leaning over the sink, I spit out blood while I washed the rest of the blood and muck from my face and arms with the trickle of water flowing through the faucet. Almost at the same time I unconsciously touch my nose and let my chakra do the preliminary cartilage setting. Finally the bleeding stopped. My nose would heal fine in time. The rest of my injuries were soft tissue and would heal on their own. No need to waste my precious chakra. I longingly looked at the shower. I wish I had time to wash off that jerk's urine.

I left the bathroom grabbed my spare clothes and quickly began wrapping my chest with bindings. Pakkum eyed me. He still hadn't spoken. "Do me a favor please, what can you tell me about this scroll?" I threw him the scroll I had snuck in my garterbelt. This was the scroll I had been able to lift from the Uchiha elder while I distracted him with my oververt advances. This was also the same scroll Itachi had been trying to get when he pressed his katana to my neck.

Pakkum grabbed it. Took a sniff of it and jumped back.

"What the hell is going on?!" He barked as the hair on his back raised up. He eyed the scroll with the respect owed to a giant cobra.

"I'm not sure, but I kind of stumbled into something big and we don't have a lot of time before he catches up with us."

"Who?"

"Itachi Uchiha."

"...Well it's nice to know you still don't do things half assed."

"Pakkum please! I need your help, How do I unseal that scroll?"

"It has been sealed by a powerful jutsu, You will need an expert on seals and I think you might need at least a sharingan possibly an Uchiha."

By now I had finished wrapping my chest and replaced my destroyed underwear with a practical boy shorts. Without pausing I began to wrap my legs while strategically placing my weapons within the folds while considering the implications of Pakkum's statement.

Shit. I needed both Kakashi and Sasuke and I had no idea where they were.

I'm not panicking. I'm not panicking. Not panicking. Was the mantra going through the forefront of my mind while I let the intuitive part run through my options with interference from my ego. This might sound like strange psychological juju, but it was a system that I discovered that worked for me. Sometime the purely logical part of my brain just got in the way.

Once I had completed wrapping my legs, I pulled on a pair of my dark brown ninja pants, my long sleeve black crew neck t-shirt, and my jounin flak vest that was still loaded with more weapons, supplies and a field medical kit. Sitting on the small hard bed pressed against the wall. I strapped on my my sandals. Finally I raised my eyes and faced Pakkum.

"I know that look"

"Pakkum, I am going to need you to do something for me and you are not going to like it." I held out the scroll and placed it next to another two blank ones on the bed. Taking precious seconds, I hoped I had, I used an archaic jutsu that recreated identical copies of the original scroll. It was one of the forbidden jutsus Tsunade made sure I perfected 6 months ago when she started sending me out on solo diplomatic missions. It was a perfect jutsu for spying. You couldn't detect how many times the original was duplicated. Where it fell short was that it only duplicated the words, it did not duplicate the power inherent in the scroll. Also if the scroll was protected, the seal would remain intact…. Right now I couldn't remember why that was…. Something about the seal remaining because the fusion chakra could not displace…. Or was it something about the placement of the chakra externally versus internally.

"Sakura I need you to focus! If you did see Itachi Uchiha, he will be here soon. What's your plan?"

I shook my head to remove the pointless academic thoughts. See what I mean about my analytical logical brain getting in the way? Pakkum was right. What was my plan?

"I'm not sure what is going on here, but we need to separate." I ignored his protest, Pakkum was very protective of me ever since Kakashi charged him with looking after me.

" I need you to take a copy of the scroll to Kakashi and Sasuke so they can break the seal for me and tell me what the hell it says. I'm not going to worry about Sasuke betraying me to his brother. He won't. I trust him. I just don't know where they are. I know you can find Kakashi faster than me because of your bond. I am relying on you." I passed a scroll to him making sure to disguise whether or not it was the original. It was best neither of us knew who had the original at this moment "Find them and give them the scroll and tell them… and tell them…" My mind raced as I tried to think about what type of coded message to give them. But then I realized there was no point. "Tell them, 'A red storm is approaching and might already be waiting at home. Blood will out. My life is forfeit without a miracle, will it be them?' "

Pakkum caught my eyes. We both knew the likelihood we would see each other again was slim.

I ignored the tightness in my throat. Now was not the time to cry. I was determined to live. "We need to make sure that we escape Oto. So we are going to take a page from Shino and Shikamaru."

Pakkum gave me his feral grin. He knew exactly what I was talking about.

* * *

Five minutes later, I watched as another set of four figures raced across the the lumpy mounds of building making up the majority of structures in Oto. Two Sakuras and two Pakkums raced off in completely different directions. All the figures held identical chakra signatures indistinguishable from the originals they were copied from. They were more than shadow clones. I still didn't have the chakra reserves to create an army of clones to be released like Naruto. Instead they were the product of a special type of beetle, Shino had gifted me with after I saved his life months ago. These beetle fused with my chakra and hidden jutsu I was sworn to secrecy never to use unless an emergency would create living clones that would stay active and could even take stronger attacks. I would not gain their knowledge when they died, but they would last until they were killed or the chakra ran out. These clones could at best give me a 2 hour distraction. It would have to be enough.

Pakkum pressed his wet nose against my hand, his way of saying good bye, then he disappeared from sight. I forced myself not think about how now I was really alone. There was nothing for me to do but watch and see if my plan worked.

I needed to get to Konoha, I needed to unseal the scroll, but if there was a chance the scroll was nothing more than the super secret Uchiha rice ball recipe. If that was the case, the scroll would not be enough for me to prove that the Uchiha clan was planning a violent military coup; I needed to gather more intel.

By now I had realized that Itachi was person disguised as the drunk samurai. And either he was a method actor truly embracing on the role of a drunk out of work samurai complete with his lack of bladder control, or he had somehow marked me. When I had brought of these fears to Pakkum, he didn't know nor was he aware if had Kakashi run into some type of urine based tracking jutsu. Regardless I was not going to worry about it. I would not spend time worrying about not showering. The risk had been too great. I would not have survived an attack from Itachi if he found in the bathroom while I was naked and weaponless. If I happened upon a water source, I would try to clean myself as much as I could. Luckily most of the urine had not touched my skin and was absorbed by the dress that was lying on the floor of my abandoned hotel room.

I went off running into the night. Itachi might or might not have marked me, but I had marked the Uchiha I stole the scroll from. He would be my first stop tonight. It was really lucky for me, that I had stumbled across the Uchiha military coup after finishing up my mission from the Daimyo. I had leftover tracking slugs hidden on my person, the same ones I used to follow the sex traffickers, buyers and victims….

It was pure luck I had the tools on me at the time and the opportunity to take advantage of it.

I raced through the windy streets looking for a safe place to activate my tracking jutsu.

Oto was still Orochimaru's territory, so when the Daimyo requested help to shut down a sex trafficking ring that was kidnapping girls and young boys from other towns and villages within the land of Fire to be sold as sex toys in Oto, I was chosen because I could keep a low profile. Orochimaru was not the target, surprisingly he had nothing to do with the sex trafficking ring. However, Tsunade gave me a secondary mission to accomplish while in Oto, become apprised of the status of things, but not directly engage any ninja. My job was to gather intel, disable the head honchos of the ring in ways that could not be traced while being my Hokage's eyes and ears in Oto.

Its funny how changes in circumstances can completely alter your mission goals.

I knew that after tonight, Oto would be on full alert I was in their hidden village. My desperate move to escape Itachi, forced me to use my chakra to create a 30 foot hole in a alley. The remaining damage would be too distinct of mentor's fighting style. Since she rarely left our village now, suspicion would rightly fall that I, Sakura Haruno jounin of Konoha was in Oto.

Further motivation of why I needed to end this tonight.

I slipped farther into darkness, wrapped a protective genjutsu around me. I entered a round building through a broken window not far from the edge of town. Once inside I began to run through circular hallways leading further down into the ground. Most buildings in Oto were built this way. The farther you entered the more likely you were to get lost in internal maze. I kept moving make sure to keep track of how many turns I made. Luckily for me, I was familiar with this place. This was actually the main hideout of the ring I had just taken down earlier this evening. As I moved closer to the inner sanctum, every so often I would have to jump over knocked out bodies. In the morning I had set up a timer to activate a minor explosion that would alter Oto forces of shenanigans in their midst.

Wait, how long did I have? No it was still night. When I had been outside the moon has just risen. That meant I had at least 2 hours before daylight when the smoke bombs would go off.

Once I found an empty room, I stopped and used my chakra to wrapped another layer to my genjutsu cover. Well, this is as secure as I am going to get. Taking a deep breath I opened up my tracking scroll and made the necessary hand signals fused with chakra. For a minute nothing happened. No! I know I place the slug on him. Did he find it? What am I going to do now?! Before my mind could go racing down those dark thoughts, the scroll before me illuminated and showed me a moving dot on the map of Oto. I freaked out over nothing. I had forgotten that being underground could delay the chakra reading features of the tracking scroll. I took another deep breath to center myself. I now knew where my target was. It was time to get back to work.


End file.
